Eric Bana: Could see Clooney in ‘Closed Circuit’

In the new thriller Closed Circuit, Aussie actor Eric Bana plays a sarcastic British lawyer who ends up taking a controversial case requiring him to defend a suspected terrorist. He later learns he was chosen for the case because the British Secret Service hopes he won’t dig too deep and implicate them in the incident. Bana recently spoke to a roundtable of reporters about the role.

So you didn’t get to kill people in this one, what happened here?I know. I had to be a good guy for once. It was interesting being on the other side and being the victim for a change.

We know about the closed circuit TV cameras everywhere in London. Do you see this a paranoid cautionary tale—something that might actually happen?The world is changing, and depending on which country you’re in, there are different levels as to which you feel as though you could be being watched and monitored. I think every time we stay in a hotel and hook into WiFi you accept the fact that there’s a good chance that at any point someone could look up anything you’ve looked up and check your history and see where you’ve gone. That’s the world we’re living in now. And certainly when you’re in London you’re aware of the fact that there are cameras everywhere. Where I come from in Melbourne [Australia], it’s nowhere near that yet.

Do you have a preference for political dramas? Do you get involved in politics when you’re not working?No, I’m probably the most un-political actor out there. I’ve never got involved in politics; it’s just not my bag.

Could you talk a little bit about the backstory your character has with Rebecca Hall’s character?Yes, it was there right from the beginning. They tell a lie and have to cover up their past relationship, raising the stakes for the audience and for the drama involved. I loved the fact that there is an element of this that is a love story in which we see no affectionate moments. There’s one little flashback when we see them in this hotel in the past, but you essentially have a love story in which the main characters don’t come anywhere near each other in a traditional sense.

I loved the fact that there is an element of this that is a love story in which we see no affectionate moments.

Did you say at any point, “There should be a scene where I’m seen taking a shower with Rebecca?”I joked with them every day that we’d be coming back and doing some very raunchy reshoots. In a very British fashion they were like, “No, no, no . . . we’ll be fine. What makes you say that?” I’d say, “Well, if this movie opens in America they’re going to want to see something, some visual evidence of the fact that they’ve been together.” I’d always joke with them about that.

If this film was to be recast with actors from the Golden Age of Cinema, who do you imagine sinking his teeth into your role?I don’t know how to answer that. The first thing I thought when I read the script was that I was really glad they sent it to me. And I was just really surprised that [George] Clooney wasn’t doing this. So, I don’t know about Golden Age, but my first question was: “Does Clooney not want to play a Brit?”

Jeff

Jeff started writing about rock ’n’ roll some 20 years ago when he stood in the pouring rain to hitch hike his way to see R.E.M. on their Life’s Rich Pageant tour. Since that time, he's written for various daily newspapers, alt-weeklies, magazines and websites. Feel free to comment on his posts or suggest music, film and art to him at jeff@whopperjaw.net.